LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7676, 8 April 1903, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

• ! — 'W At Lyttelton, to-day, Mr R. B^tbam, 6.-4-, renewed' one old age pension in full. The Moeraki, from Sydney, arrived at Wellington this morning. Her mails will probably reach Christchurch early to-mor-row. On Lee, the keeper of the 'Chinese cook--house at Dunedin which was raided on 'Sunday night, was fined B'S and thirtytwo others twenty shillings each to-day. On Good Friday the Telegraph Office will be open from 9.30 a,m. to 10 a.m and from 5p m. to 5.30 p.m. On Easter Monday it will be open from 9 a-"-.- to 4 p.m and from 7 p.m. to midnight. The Telephqae Exchange will be open as usual. . At the Magnetic Observatory at 930 this morning, the barometer was at 29.819, and was rising. The maximum temperature during the preceding twenty-four hours had been 69.7 and the minimum 45.2. The temperature at 9.30 w-rft-.— Dry bulb 56.4 and wet' bulb 53.0, with 79 per cent -of humidity. The maximum temperature in the sun ■was 132.0, and the minimum thermometer en the grass 36.7, The wind was calm, and the rainfall for the twenty-four hours was ,I£s of an Inch. . . _. ■ Mr Edgar Stead, who takes a keen interest in. native bird«j, and x is devoting special attention to the migrants that come to this colony, has added another bird to the list of New Zealand's "auna. It is the curlew stint, » small bird of the sandpiper kind, whose scientific name is amchylochilus He has obtained two specimens, one in its winter plumage, and another which was beginning to change into the breeding plumage. He has presented one specimen to the Canterbury Museum. A large number of additional exhibits feave been added to the Egyptian collection an ihe Antiquity Room of the Canterbury Museum. A new case has been prepared for them, and the whole collection is now "very representative of the ancient Egyptians an 4 thejr ideas and- customs. Tlie additions include beads, some of which are •made from the earliest glass known, cornelian rings, representations of Isis and osir|s, amulets and the moulds in which they were made, stone and bronze weights, porcehun figures, notably one of a figure of "Tat," an emblem of stability, and so on. There ' is a very good representation of the figure of Isiris and Horus. Other notable objects in the collection aTe a marble canoptic jar and a marble wine vase, and ajvuinber of stone implements and flint arrowbeads from the Libyan desert. Mr E. H. Lukins, of Nelson, has presented to the Canterbury Museum an interesting Maori relic It is thefigui-e-b/ead of a cane© thai was used by tlie/ great noiihlern warrior Rauparaba, in some of his famous raids to the^outh. An interesting feature , of the information supplied by Mr Lukins ; - is the statement that the figure-head, which is a very ugly one, was uk-.I only on warlike expeditions, being replaced by an ornamental one when the warriors came in peace. Mr Lukins states tliat about fifteen years ago he went for a cruise in Croicelle- Harbour, and Ins yacht weait . ashore at Wanga-rie Bay. The party sought) shelter with soma Maoris, and he met an. old chief named Renata, who belonged to llauparaha's tribe, and came from; Mana Island. The old man stated that he had -■ known the canoe from his boyhood, and that it was one of those used in the descent *o Kaiapoi, the figure-head being carried on. that historical voyage. Mr Lukins also states tihat the figure-head was taken when the massacre took place at Blenheim. The canoe itself, when he saw Renata and obtained the relic, Tj-as lying in the scrub, half rotten. It had a beam measuring six , feet, and was about sixty feet long. J"